YNAB BLOG

Use YNAB’s Quick Tips to Save Time and Clicks

The more comfortable you feel with YNAB the software, the more likely you are to live YNAB the philosophy. The education team already serves up hundreds of knowledge base articles, video tutorials, and live classes. Erin and team have decided to add some lighter fare to the support menu: a steady series of 30 second (or so) tutorials to help you shave clicks off your YNAB work.

The Quick Tips’ beauty is their brevity; a one or two minute weekly investment will turn you into a YNAB ninja.

You’ll never miss a Quick Tip if you hang out with us on at least one of our social media channels (although we’d love to have you on all of them, of course):

15 Responses to “Use YNAB’s Quick Tips to Save Time and Clicks”

Thanks, Mark! I appreciate these short videos but wonder why we can’t leave comments on the YNAB YouTube channel. I wanted to comment on the Column width video that I’m unable to change the column widths for Memos, and all the other columns to the right of it.
Anyone else have this issue?

Yes i have that same problem. Every time I use ynab, the columns revert back to skinny columns and I have to widen them to see the full category description, memo, etc. How can I get ynab to remember the column widths that I set?

I an others are experiencing the same issue as Eva. This is not related to resizing YNAB. I have contacted support and posted in the forums. This has happened since I started using YNAB 2 years ago. the column widths will stay the same for a little while then revert to the defaults.

I thought the it was funny that you have a tip, #5, that does not stay. I’m glad it is easy to change them cause I have to do it so frequently.

I have the same issue as Eva. I have submitted several e-mail to support@youneedabudget.com. The last on January 3, 2014 and have received no response. A search of the forums shows that others are experiencing the issue as well.

It’s a function of the window size and screen resolution. On my 13″ Mac Book Air with a full size window, I get 3 months. If I drag the window slightly smaller, I get 2. If I take it over to the bigger monitor, I get about six.

Any chance of having the tips as text instead of (or in addition TO) videos? I really hate having to go watch a video when it takes usually half the time (or less) to read what the actual tip was. A transcript would also be nice for those who are audio-impaired (deaf) or are otherwise unable to listen to the audio (due to not being allowed to use speakers when using computers at work, etc.).

1. When the date field is activated, you can use the letter “T” on your keyboard to jump to Today’s date.
You can also use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to toggle back and forth through time.

2. You can easily customize which columns you view in the account register. At the top of the scrollbar, there is a plus sign. If you click on that, you can either check or uncheck the columns you want.

3. In the Spending by Payee report, if you click on a payee in the sidebar, it will show you a list of all the transactions associated with that payee based on the timeframe in your report. If you click on “Show in Account View,” YNAB will filter a search of just those transactions. Make sure you clear the search when you’re done.

4.You can use the down arrow to move through the budget. Just activate the budget cell and start moving the arrow down. When you get to the very bottom of the list, it will appear again at the top.

5.You can easily customize the column width in the account register. Just hover over the header and find the vertical line between the two columns, then just click and drag to resize the column.

Regarding Quick Tip 4, yes you can scroll down all the way to the bottom and then it will take you to the top. But you cannot do the reverse! I.e. you can’t scroll up and have it pop back down to the bottom. That makes it less than useful. And somewhat half-assed.

I am so very thankful for your quick tips. They have made my YNAB experience even more invaluable – when I thought there was no chance of that happening! I was an avid budgeter before YNAB (and LOVED the Excel Spreadsheet I had made), but YNAB was like earning the Gold Lounge at a hotel when I was perfectly happy with my nice, normal room that I had anyway. Quick tips are like finding out that the Gold Lounge has more than just a great view…there are extra sweet treats that go along with it. Thank you!!